Gordon Haskell

Gordon Haskell (born 27 April 1946, in Bournemouth, Hampshire, England) was the bassist and vocalist in the transitional King Crimson line-up of 1970. He appeared on the album Lizard, but quit the group during rehearsals for live work. School friends with Robert Fripp, they previously worked together in an earlier version of League of Gentlemen. Haskell's more folk oriented interests were in conflict with Crimson's sound, so he elected to leave. Since then he has released many solo albums, including - It Is and It Isn't (1972) Atlantic, No.8 Radio Luxembourg chart Serve At Room Temperature (1979) RCA (un-released until 1997) Then, after getting into some debt, he decamped to Denmark where he played six nights a week playing in bars. His voice became a lot stronger, and he paid off his debt. In the 1990s he continued to make more albums, and even released some singles. The "almost certainly" single, released in 1990, went to number one in South Africa. An album called Hambledon Hill followed this. It did well on airplay with BBC Radio 1's DJ, Bob Harris saying "he loved it". A single of the same name was planned. Alas the distributor went bankrupt, and so the deal fell through. However in 1994 the Voiceprint record label re-issued the album, and more followed like - It's Just A Plot To Drive You Crazy (1994) Voiceprint Butterfly In China (1996) Wilderness Records (A single from Butterfly In China was planned called "More Yin Than Yang", but only promo copies were available). All In The Scheme Of Things (1999) Wilderness Records Look Out (2001) Flying Sparks Look Out contained a song entitled "How Wonderful You Are". This was given to Johnnie Walker of BBC Radio 2 the day before 9/11, and he liked the song, so he played it to listeners, who made it the most requested song in the radio station's history. Due to public demand, this was released as a single for the UK Christmas number one chase. Despite only 25% TV & radio publicity, it still crashed in to the Christmas number two spot in the UK Singles Chart, selling 400,000 copies. It was narrowly beaten by Robbie Williams & Nicole Kidman's cover of "Something Stupid", which had 95% publicity. Warner Bros. signed Gordon for a long-term album deal, and Harry's Bar was released under the East West record label on 7 January 2002. It also crashed into number 2 in the UK Albums Chart, making Haskell's comeback a great success. European audiences also embraced Harry's Bar and it became more successful. Later on that year Shadows on the Wall was released, but only made Number 44 in the UK Albums Chart. Then Haskell decided to write his autobiography with David Nobbs author of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. His next album reached Number 14 in the Polish album charts. Called The Lady Wants To Know it covers eleven tracks, was produced by Hamish Stuart and featured Tony O'Malley and Robbie McIntosh. Stuart and McIntosh were formerly members of the Scottish rock band, Average White Band. A DVD came out in 2005 called "The Road To Harry's Bar", the same name as his forthcoming autobiography. His next album will be out in 2006, with accompanying single.